


would you like fries with that?

by Ford_Ye_Fiji



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, And technically the tea shop doesn’t come in until the end, COFFEE SHOP AU YAS, Except technically it’s a tea shop, Fluff, Gen, Hush - Freeform, I DIDNT FORGET SUKI THIS TIME FAM, I'll think of something, Minor Sokka/Suki, No I don’t know what made the gaang love Zuko so much in this fic, The Jasmine Dragon (Avatar), Zuko is an Angry Turtleduck, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, also, also the gaang is too big, look Sokka does different things depending on whether or not Suki is there, so many people to take care of in a scene XD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-07 18:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20980667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ford_Ye_Fiji/pseuds/Ford_Ye_Fiji
Summary: "Do you come with the happy meal?""You guys didn’t even order anything."





	1. Would you like extra sauce?

**Author's Note:**

> Fam I don’t even know what happened this time. I saw this quote and was immediately punched in the face with inspiration.

Zuko groaned, clapping a hand on his face and dragging it down with dramatic misery. He opened the drive-thru window as if he were a prisoner being forced to approach the chopping block for execution. His eyes narrowed into slits, breath hissing out between his teeth, "_What._" 

The strange bald kid with the blue arrow tattoos, he had to have unbuckled himself for this, leaned over from the backseat, nearly crawling over the ever patient dark haired girl at the wheel. He smiled slyly, "Do you come with the happy meal?"

Zuko sighed, words thick with long suffering, "You guys didn’t even order anything." 

The girl flicked her brown hair, "Are you gonna come with us or not?" 

Zuko snapped, "For the last time I’m not hanging out with a bunch of random strangers who keep harassing me!" 

The girl and the bald kid pouted. The boy in the passenger seat who’d been picking his nails, stared at him, "C'mon, man. This is like the thirtieth time. We're totally friends!" He nodded at Zuko's hair, "And if I haven’t said it before, nice haircut."

Zuko's jaw cracked as he spat, "Actually, it’s the forty-third."

(He might’ve been a bit sensitive about being forced to cut his ponytail a while back. His head still felt empty without it’s weight and his short shaggy hair had grown out to fall disconcertingly around his mangled ear.) 

The boy jumped, "Ha! You _are_ keeping track! We're totally great friends by now! And friends rescue other friends from work!" 

Zuko turned, "Actually I’ve been keeping track so that I can call the police-“ 

The boy yelped, "Go, Katara, gun it! Gogogogo-“

"Will you calm down Sokka? He’s clearly bluffing." 

Zuko had already picked up his cellphone, "Hello, 911?” 

There was a shriek and when Zuko turned back the car was gone. He tucked the undialed phone back into his pocket, smiled smugly, and closed the window. 

* * *

"If you were a fruit, you'd be a fineapple."

Zuko glared, "You know I have a girlfriend."

Sokka spluttered indignantly, words coming out in a high-pitched shriek, "These are strictly platonic pick up lines!  _Platonic!_ "

Zuko raised his single eyebrow, "Fineapple?" 

Sokka's shoulder's hunched as he muttered, "....Well, Toph came up with that one." He sulked out the passenger window. 

Zuko blinked, "There are more of you?"

Katara grinned and unrolled the back window. A girl with black messy hair stared at him, pale green eyes drifting to his left, "Do you live in a cornfield, cause I’m stalking you!" 

Zuko's lips pulled down, "You’re like twelve." 

The bald kid raised his hand from where he was squished into the backseat, "I’m twelve too!" 

A girl with short auburn hair waved at him good-naturedly, "I’m not twelve." 

Zuko grunted, "I’m not coming. And 'platonic' pickup lines won’t win me over." 

Katara batted her eyelashes, "And what will?" 

He frowned, "Why do you guys keep coming here?" 

Katara shrugged, "Aang." 

The bald kid waved his hand frantically, "That’s me! I’m Aang! Hi! What’s your name?" 

Zuko scoffed, "Like I’d tell you." 

"Aw pretty please?" 

"Yeah, c'mon sparky! Tell us your name!" 

"Yeah, c'mon, give us something!"

He had no idea what to do with a car full of prepubescent children pleading with him for his name.  


He snapped, panicking in his attempt to placate them, "Ugh, its Zuko!"  


He slammed the window shut in their delighted faces. 

* * *

"Zukooooo! Your customers are asking for you at the register!" 

"What  customers? I don’t  _have_ customers-“ 

"Zuko." The sharp voice of manager Jee snapped him to attention. The gray haired man frowned at him, "Go take care of them." 

Zuko handed his mop to a suspiciously pleased Hana and marched over to the register. He felt all the blood drain from his face as a familiar ragtag group of children spotted him. Aang waved manically. 

Zuko scooted behind the register, glowering at them. Sokka has the sense to shrink backwards into Suki who seemed to find his fear rather amusing. Katara folded her arms and lifted her chin defensively. Aang smiled even wider. Toph was utterly unaffected, staring off to his right, grinning. 

Zuko ground out, "_Your order._" 

Aang stepped forward, tapping his chin as he eyed the screens, "Hmmmm. I’m not sure what I want... hmmm." 

Zuko scowled. 

The group hemmed and hawed quite a bit and ran their orders in hopeless circles for a good ten minutes. With each second that passed and each customer that lined up behind the group, the hapless employee found himself growing more and more frustrated. Zuko finally broke, "Will you  _please_ hurry up?" 

Aang seemed to sense he’d won somehow. The kid might look innocent but he was far from it.  <strike>Just like Azula</strike>. He grinned, "Actually I think I _do_ know what we want." 

Zuko hissed, " _What?_ " 

"For  _you_ to hang out with us!" 

Zuko groaned digging his fingers into his hair. Finally he threw his hands up in the air and bellowed into the kitchen, " _Jee!_"

The manager made his way over to the frustrated employee and the group of children. He suppressed a smile, "Yes, Zuko?" 

"Take care of them I- I can’t right now." The boy stormed off into the kitchen, presumably to hide there until he felt back to his usual self. Jee smiled impassively at them, "May I take your order?" 

Sokka crossed his arms sulkily. Aang looked extremely put out. Jee decided to throw them a bone, "Zuko likes fire flakes. His break is in fifteen minutes. He'll be out back."

Aang's face lit up. 

* * *

"Zuko!" 

Zuko startled, falling over the bench and landing with a thump in the dirt. 

Sokka crossed his arms, "Probably shouldn’t have hidden in the bushes to wait for him, Aang." Suki snickered, "We look like stalkers." 

Zuko pushed himself to his feet, "That’s becuse you  _are_ stalkers." 

He sat down on the bench again, snarling like an angry cat. Toph sat down too, scooting over to him, "Hi." 

Zuko eyed her, clearly unsure what to do with a twelve year old staring off into the middle distance. She held out a hand to her right, "I’m Toph." 

He shook it warily, "Zuko." 

"Great! We're friends now!" She immediately clung to his arm like monkey. Zuko tried to pull his arm out from her rocklike grip but he was trapped. Aang ambushed him from the other side, clambering over the back of the bench, light as air, and landing next to him with a thump, "I brought fire flakes! As a peace offering!" 

He'd been bested by twelve year olds.

Azula would’ve laughed.

Zuko hissed, clearly reluctant to assault children in public, even if they were stalkers, "What are you guys doing?!" 

Katara gracefully sat on the edge of the bench, flicking a strand of hair behind her back, "Having lunch." 

Sokka, holding Suki's hand captive, shrugged off his jacket one handed and spread it on the ground. They both sat, pulling out boxes and bags from nowhere. Zuko glowered, "If you brought lunch why were you just harassing me?" 

Aang held up his fire flakes cheerfully, "We wanted fresh fire flakes! They’re cinnamon flavored!" 

"You wanted fire flakes."

His tone was flat and dry. Aang nodded, "Oh yeah totally. Sokka loves them!" 

Sokka nodded and grabbed a handful, "Sure do!"

Suki raised a hand, "Oh- I-“ her boyfriend stuffed them in his mouth and she winced. He started hacking and coughing a second later. Katara snorted as he sputtered, "Ah, hot! Hot, hot, hot!" 

Suki handed him a water bottle, "They are called  _fire_ flakes, stupid." 

Sokka croaked and took it gratefully, "Yeah, thanks dear." He started guzzling the proffered water. 

Aang winced, "Ah, do you want some Zuko?" 

Zuko raised an eyebrow and very carefully, took a handful. 

The group counted that as a victory. 

* * *

Jee raised a thick gray eyebrow as the group of children who’d been relentlessly hounding his grumpiest employee spilled back into the restaurant. They had made Zuko smile and honestly, the kid needed friends his age. Good friends. 

Aang looked around as if his presence alone would make the boy he was looking for materialize. When Zuko failed to appear, Aang trotted up to the register. He smiled widely and asked, "Hey, is Zuko in today?" 

Jee sighed in fake despondence, "I’m afraid Zuko is no longer with us." 

" _What?!_ ” 

Jee smirked at Sokka's unflattering squawk, "He quit." 

Toph gaped, "He did?" 

Jee nodded, "Yes." 

If ever a group of children could look more crestfallen... Jee added, "He quit to go work at the Jasmine Dragon with his uncle. The new tea shop across the block." 

Their faces lit up.

* * *

Zuko sighed, wiping down a table as he breathed in the peaceful quiet of the Jasmine Dragon. He’d only been working at  _Wani_ temporarily, to help put money toward Uncle Iroh's tea shop. Three years later and the Jasmine Dragon was finally open for business. 

Iroh laughed jovially with a customer across the room, refilled his tea and disappeared back inside the kitchen. Zuko returned to the register, tucking his washcloth into his apron pocket, wiping his hands down, and pasting a smile on his face, "Welcome to the Jasmine Dragon how can I-" 

His brows furrowed as his voice lowered, "..._How_ did you even _find_ me?" 

Aang leaned on the counter, which was a little too tall for him to do so and grinned, "What can I say? We have our ways." 

Suki smiled, "Jee told us. He’s very nice." 

Zuko’s scowl could’ve curdled milk.

Iroh choose that moment to come up behind his nephew, "Oh, Zuko, do you know these fine young people?" 

Toph's face broke into a grin, "Hey! I know you! You’re that uncle guy who helped me find Aang and who told me about his lost nephew-  _wait_." 

Zuko ignored Toph's outburst and snapped, "These people are  _not_-“ 

Sokka interrupted him, "Oh yeah, Mr. Uncle Guy sir, we're totally Zuko's friends. We used to visit him at  _Wani_. " 

Iroh gasped delightedly, "Oh Zuko! You didn’t tell me you’d made friends. You must have them come to our humble little apartment sometime." 

Iroh was the opposite of Zuko and honestly, Katara had no idea how the two of them were even related. He continued, "Let me get you some tea, Jasmine- it’s our best." Sokka opened his mouth but Iroh beat him to it, "It's on the house for putting up with my beloved nephew." 

"Uncle!" 

He patted his nephew's shoulder warmly, "Zuko, I’m so proud of you. You had me so worried, but now I see that there was nothing at all to fret about." 

Zuko flushed, "But- but they're..." he sighed, "Yes, uncle." 

"Now. You take a break and spend some time with your friends. I’ll make the tea." Then, with a twinkle in his eye, Zuko's uncle disappeared into the kitchen. 

Zuko's soft impossibly fond expression melted away into annoyance as he glared at the group, "_Well?_ Pick a table."

Aang had won. 

They finally had him. 


	2. some sugar for your tea?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Local twelve year old boy adopts cranky sixteen year old against his will, more at six.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ask and ye shall receive XD

"Hey, who’s that?" 

Aang straightened, craning his neck eagerly. Sokka didn’t pay any attention to his friend's words, utterly preoccupied with the wonder that was his girlfriend Suki. Katara was nose deep in her book and hummed in response to Aang, pretending rather badly that she was listening. 

Aang huffed at their lack of response. Honestly, Toph would’ve bullied them into paying attention, but she hadn’t gotten up in time this morning to join them at the park. (And when they’d tried to wake her up, she’d thrown a pillow at their faces and shouted furiously at them until they closed the door.) 

Aang got up and quickly trotted towards the object of his attention, which was a boy, a little older than Katara with what was, in his opinion, a very silly haircut. He sat on a bench surrounded by turtleducks. 

Aang needed someone to teach  him how to do that. The birds always ran away before he could pet them. Aang peered at him from behind a tree. 

The boy tossed bread at the ducks and they quacked excitedly. Aang could see now, from this angle, that the stranger had turtleducklings in his lap, pecking at his black and red clothes. Which Aang now recognized as the uniform of those who worked at  _Wani_ . Thinking of  _Wani_ and it’s delicious food made him hungry. 

A turtleduck flapped it’s wings and rubbed it’s head against his arm. The corners of the boy's mouth curved upwards. He turned to pet it and Aang got a glimpse of his face, and really the attention getting haircut made sense now. It distracted from the massive scarlet burn scar that covered half his face, stretching from his mangled earlobe to his damaged eye. In fact, he might've looked a little scary if he hadn’t had turtleducks climbing all over him. 

Aang stepped backwards, feeling bad for spying on him without saying anything. A stick cracked under his foot. The boy's gaze snapped over to the tree Aang was hiding behind and he growled, voice low and rough with the hint of some bygone lisp, "Who’s there?" 

Aang held his breath fearfully. 

The turtleducks clambered over his lap and one of them quacked and nudged at his hand for more bread. He opened his palm and let it eat the crumbs there, eyes never leaving Aang's tree. 

Oh man. 

But perhaps this was an opportunity. As scary as the boy was, he got the feeling he wouldn't shove all those turtleducks off of him if he ran now. Aang tossed his orange hood up open over his head, turned and bolted. 

He heard the boy shout and splutter, but Aang was unbelievably fast. 

Aang glanced back once and was able to see that he was right. The boy was carefully trying to remove the turtleducks from his bench so that he could chase after who'd been spying on him. 

He wasn’t making much progress. 

Aang laughed, gave a little wave and disappeared into the park. 

The boy shouted angrily. 

* * *

Sokka made fun of Aang for running from an angry boy with turtleducks. Sokka said that no one could be  that intimidating with a lapful of ducklings. Aang had disagreed. Katara had told him spying on people was bad, Suki had agreed, and Toph, when they’d gotten back to the house, had high-fived him for making mischief. 

That was the end of it. 

Or it would’ve been had the group not returned to the park a week or so later. 

Aang found himself exploring alone, wading in a creek and looking for frogs. He liked frogs and catching them was one of his favorite hobbies. 

A rock bounced off his head. Aang yelped and rubbed at the spot, "Hey! Who did that?" 

The trees were silent. Aang's eyes narrowed, but not a leaf was out of place. 

He returned to frog-catching. Another rock hit him, bouncing off his shoulder this time, and Aang whirled, "Alright stop it! Who’s there?" 

A familiar figure appeared from between the trees. He grinned, "Well fancy seeing you here, Aang." 

Aang's eyes narrowed at the much older boy, "Zhao." 

Zhao and Aang had a complicated history. And by complicated, he meant not pleasant. Zhao had made his life a lot harder in school and in return Aang had made a nuisance of himself. So had Katara and Sokka and really just everyone. It had been a relief when Zhao had graduated. 

Aang crossed his arms, "What are you doing here?" 

Zhao grinned, "Well, I was taking a walk, but you know I think I’d rather string you up in the trees like hog monkey you are-“ he lunged and Aang darted out of his way. 

He scrambled over a rock, tripped and shouted, "Are you crazy?"

Zhao grabbed Aang's ankle and pulled. Aang wriggled but he’d been caught. Zhao sneered, "I think I’ll tie you to a tree a long way from here. That way, no one can here you scream." 

There was a long suffering sigh. It came from neither of the two boys and they both turned their heads. Aang was able to recognize the speaker even from upside down. Turtleduck boy with the stupid haircut. Turtleduck boy, fortunately, did not recognize him. 

His arms were crossed as he leaned against a tree, clearly unimpressed, one eyebrow raised, "Are you serious, Zhao. You’re beating up nine year olds now?"

Aang sputtered, wanting to tell him that no really, he was actually twelve, but the blood was starting to rush to his head. 

He stepped forward, "Put him down, Zhao. You’re being stupid." 

Zhao shook his head, "No! This little shi-“ 

He interrupted him before he could finish his words, "He’s tiny. You’re  nineteen . Grow up." 

Zhao hissed, "Bold words for a sixteen year old little kid. I’ll drop him when I want too. Now go home to your lazy idiot uncle like the coward you are, and go back to pretending I don’t exist you upstart little  brat ." 

Angry ponytail guy, which was Aang's new name for him, snarled, golden eyes sparking as if itching for a fight. Then he crossed his arms and turned to go, "Fine." 

Oh no, wait he was actually being  left here?

Zhao turned to glare triumphantly, his grin malicious and promising pain for his terrified captive. Then, angry ponytail guy  struck . 

It was over in an instant, Zhao curled up on the ground groaning and Aang sprawled wide-eyed on his back on the bank of the creek. Angry ponytail guy snapped at Zhao, "Go pick on someone your  own size ." 

He started to leave, but then paused when he saw Aang staring at him, "Well? What are you doing, idiot? Go home!" 

He stomped away. Aang scrambled to his feet and darted after him, "Wow! That was so cool! How did you do that! I didn’t even see you move! Can you teach me to do that? I mean I’m a pacifist and all, but I’m not against self defense. He went down just like that-!” 

Angry ponytail guy turned and fixed him with a glare. Aang was fast learning that while scary, every single one of his glares were harmless. Unless he was holding a kid upside down over a creek, but he wouldn’t do that. The boy hissed, "Do you ever shut up?" 

"No! Do you want to meet Appa? I’d bet you'd like Appa. Everyone likes Appa. Do work at Wani? Do you want to meet Sokka? Can we be friends?" 

Angry ponytail guy threw his hands up in the air, "No, we can’t be friends! I don’t  have friends. Now leave me alone!" Honestly, if he'd known this small annoying child would be  this chatty, he would’ve left him to Zhao.

Angry ponytail guy stormed off. 

Aang watched him go.

He knew then, that there was no way he was letting angry ponytail guy sulk all by himself. 

Aang was going to get him, one way or another. 

(And, he did.) 

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is here I’d love to talk or scream about Zuko idk I’m a fan of either:  
https://ford-ye-fiji.tumblr.com/


End file.
